Category Archives: EDX/EDS/SEM/IMC/FTIR,


Jun19
What Is EDX/EDS? A Beginner’s Guide to Elemental Analysis in Materials Science

Energy-Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS or EDX) is a common, non-destructive technique used in the industry to quickly identify the elemental composition of a sample’s surface. In electronics manufacturing and material analysis, knowing what elements are present is critical for quality … Continue reading

May29
Uncovering the Culprit: How CAF Turned Out to Be the Hidden Cause Behind PCB Micro-Shorts — From Suspicion and Analysis to Solutions

Workingbear’s company was having a tough time with a strange issue: intermittent micro-short circuits inside the layers of the PCB. Since the shorts didn’t show up near any components, it was really hard to figure out what was wrong. Recently, … Continue reading

Apr30
Understanding the EDX Report: Can EDX Be Used to Estimate a Sample’s Chemical Formula?

Workingbear has noticed that many people still have questions about EDX/EDS elemental analysis reports. This is the second article where he tries to provide answers based on his knowledge. EDX (Energy-Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy), also known as EDS, is actually an … Continue reading

Apr23
Understanding the EDX Report: Why Does the Same Element Have Multiple Peaks?

In failure analysis reports for PCB assembly defects, we often use EDX or call EDS (Energy-Dispersive X-ray spectroscopy) for chemical elemental analysis. However, many people don’t fully understand how EDX works, and they have only a vague idea of how to … Continue reading

Apr17
How to Identify Unknown Contaminants: Choosing Between EDX/EDS and FTIR

When we discover unknown contaminants on printed circuit boards assembly (PCBA) or electronic products, how do we determine what they are and where they come from? Do we rely on experience, or do we use scientific instruments for analysis? What … Continue reading